Asteroids Hyper 64

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By IGN Staff

Along with Pac Man and Space Invaders, Asteroids would definitely have to be included as one of the original forefathers of videogaming. While Pac Man and Space Invaders gave way to dozens of similarly themed games, Asteroids just doesn't have quite the same legacy as those two monster titles. If Pac Man and SI are George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, then Asteroids is the Patrick Henry of arcade classics. Huge impact on the revolution, but you'll never find its picture on any currency. However, a generation later, only Asteroids is making the jump to the N64 with the release of Asteroids Hyper 64. The Syrox developed game from Crave is bigger than ever and sure to feed the need for arcade classics on the console

The Facts:

50 levels spread over five zones.

Over 15 different types of asteroids including 4 new ones: -Color coded radioactive asteroids will disable different ship functions like weapons, propulsion and control. -Unstable asteroids explode at random. -Heat seeking asteroids zero in on targets. -Cloaked asteroids disappear and reappear throughout play field.

New ship features like multiple impact shields, power-ups and wild card weapons.

With the move to the Big N, Asteroids will feature the same two dimensional look with more colors and detail than any previous Asteroids game, while combining elements of Asteroid like games such as Space Duel and Blasteroids. In some ways it's good to see a classic arcade game updated with most of the original game features intact. In Asteroids 64, you'll still rotate, thrust and fire your way to victory while many other classic aracade, NES or SNES games brought to the N64 are simply new 3D games with the old familiar brand name slapped on the box.

While there is some virtue to sticking to the original Asteroids formula, this may also be a big negative to the game's lasting appeal. After all, it is 1999 and the numbers behind videogame graphics, gameplay, artificial intelligence, just to name a few, have grown geometrically. Nostalgia counts for a lot in the retro-climate of the 1990s, but can it sustain enough interest to keep today's gamers blowing up television screens full of rocks with the occasional UFO zigging by? Probably not, but Asteroids has taken steps to totally change that situation.

The variety of asteroids seem very clever and could provide a late 20th century challenge for today's skilled gamers. There will be plenty to compel players to blast any and every rock they see as quickly as possible. An asteroid that can knockout ship functions or home in on your location will be quite a bit to contend with and, we suspect, the cause for a whole lot of frustration. That'll be a far cry from the older Asteroid games. It was an entirely different challenge to smash the giant floating boulders into more manageable pieces and then find your self in a hailstorm of speedy pebbles streaking in every direction. And we bet there'll be a lot more troublesome bad guys to deal with than that annoying little flying saucer making that terrible "wooo-woooo" noise.

The ship will need plenty of kick @ss weapons to deal with all of those evil flying rocks and bad guy vehicles. While many of us had to get by with just a blaster and hyperspace button on the original or power shield in Asteroids Deluxe, we'll at least need some three way weapons or power blaster for the N64. The multiple hit shields will be a welcome addition for those slow on the controller. For a truly dominating experience, we'd like to see some sort of super "Yamato-gun" type blast weapon that takes up the majority of the screen and wipes out everything even though it leaves you vulnerable, but that's just us.

The multiplayer modes may be the game's saving grace. The Tow Rope Co-op mode will more than likely play a lot like Space Duel where two ships are tethered to each other and have to work together to navigate around the screen. This mode alone with all of the neat weapons and power-ups we're expecting could make for some great multiplayer action. Imagine slinging your buddy into an oncoming asteroid when you get sick of him or her not doing their part in your cooperative effort to rid the universe of floating chunks of rock.

Outlook: Asteroids Hyper 64 could be a sleeper hit if it has the addictive gameplay that made games from the 1980's so fun. As we recall, though, Asteroids had a great advantage in 1979 with its lack of competition. Coming into such a hostile videogame market with anything less than perfect execution is tough enough for original game concepts. For something as familiar and dear as Asteroids, the challenge will be to generate new interest in a very dated game idea. New types of asteroids and weapons may have been something huge for the franchise 15 years ago, but in 1999 it'll be hard for those features to grab and hold a gamer's attention when there are so many other options.